short in later years.

[Illustration: Silver maple flowers]

Watch this maple in very early spring--even before spring is any more
than a calendar probability--and a singular bloom will be found along
the slender twigs. Like little loose-haired brushes these flowers are,
coming often bravely in sleet and snow, and seemingly able to "set" and
fertilize regardless of the weather. They hurry through the bloom-time,
as they must do to carry out the life-round, for the graceful
two-winged seeds that follow them are picked up and whirled about by
April winds, and, if they lodge in the warming earth, are fully able to
grow into fine little trees the same season. Examine these seed-pods,
keys, or samaras (this last is a scientific name with such euphony to it
that it might well become common!), and notice the delicate veining in
the translucent wings. See the graceful lines of the whole thing, and
realize what an abundant provision Dame Nature makes for
reproduction,--for a moderate-sized tree completes many thousands of
these finely formed, greenish yellow, winged samaras, and casts them
loose for the wind to distribute during enough days to secure the best
chances of the season.

This same silver maple is a bone of contention among tree-men, at times.
Some will tell you it is "coarse"; and so it is when planted in an
improper place upon a narrow street, allowed to flourish unrestrained
for years, and then ruthlessly cropped off to a headless trunk! But set
it on a broad lawn, or upon a roadside with generous room, and its noble
stature and grace need yield nothing to the most artistic elm of New
England. And in the deep woods it sometimes reaches a majesty and a
dignity that compel admiration. The great maple at Eagles Mere is the
king of the bit of primeval forest yet remaining to that mountain rest
spot. It towers high over mature hemlocks and beeches, and seems well
able to defy future centuries.

But there is another very early maple to watch for, and it is one widely
distributed in the Eastern States. The red or scarlet maple is well
named, for its flowers, not any more conspicuous in form than those of
its close relation, the silver maple, are usually bright red or yellow,
and they give a joyous color note in the very beginning of spring's
overture. Not long are these flowers with us; they fade, only to be
quickly succeeded by even more brilliant samaras, a little more delicate
and refined than those of the silver